Shloka 20

Devanagari script

अव्यक्तबीजप्रभवो बुद्धिस्कन्धमयो महान्‌ । महाहड्कारविटप इन्द्रियाड्कुरकोटर:,छित्त्वा चामरतां प्राप्प जहाति मृत्युजन्मनी । यह देह एक वृक्षके समान है। अज्ञान इसका मूल अंकुर (जड़) है, बुद्धि स्कनध (तना) है, अहंकार शाखा है, इन्द्रियाँ खोखले हैं, पजच महाभूत उसके विशेष अवयव हैं और उन भूतोंके विशेष भेद उसकी टहनियाँ हैं। इसमें सदा ही संकल्परूपी पत्ते उगते और कर्मरूपी फूल खिलते रहते हैं। शुभाशुभ कर्मोसे प्राप्त होनेवाले सुख-दुःखादि ही उसमें सदा लगे रहनेवाले फल हैं। इस प्रकार ब्रह्मरूपी बीजसे प्रकट होकर प्रवाहरूपसे सदा मौजूद रहनेवाला देहरूपी वृक्ष समस्त प्राणियोंके जीवनका आधार है। जो इसके तत्त्वको भलीभाँति जानकर ज्ञानरूपी उत्तम तलवारसे इसे काट डालता है, वह अमरत्वको प्राप्त होकर जन्म-मृत्युके बन्धनसे छुटकारा पा जाता है

Transliteration

avyaktabījaprabhavo buddhiskandhamayo mahān | mahāhaṅkāraviṭapa indriyāṅkurakoṭaraḥ | chittvā cāmaratāṁ prāpya jahāti mṛtyujanmanī ||

Translation

Vāyu said: “This great tree of embodied existence springs from an unmanifest seed. Its trunk is intellect (buddhi), its branches are the great ego-sense (ahaṅkāra), and its hollows are the sense-faculties. When a person truly understands this and cuts it down with the excellent sword of knowledge, he attains immortality and leaves behind the bondage of death and rebirth.”

Word by Word

अव्यक्तबीजप्रभवःarising from the unmanifest seed

बुद्धिस्कन्धमयःhaving intellect as its trunk

महान्great

महाहङ्कारविटपःhaving great ego as its branches

इन्द्रियाङ्कुरकोटरःwith sense-organs as sprouts and hollows

छित्त्वाhaving cut (it)

चand

अमरताimmortality

प्राप्यhaving attained

जहातिabandons

मृत्युजन्मनीdeath and birth (the pair)

Speaker

वायुदेव उवाच

Characters & Entities

Vāyudeva (Vāyu)

deha (the body) as a tree (metaphor)

buddhi

ahaṅkāra

indriyas

jñāna (knowledge) as a sword (implied)

amaratā (immortality)

mṛtyu-janma (death and birth)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Cross References

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

Embodied life is compared to a tree rooted in an unmanifest cause, structured by buddhi, ahaṅkāra, and the senses. Liberation comes when one understands this construction and ‘cuts’ attachment to it through discriminative knowledge, thereby transcending the cycle of birth and death.

What is happening in the narrative?

Vāyudeva is instructing the listener with a philosophical allegory: the body and worldly existence are mapped as a tree. The point is not botanical description but a practical soteriology—know the constituents of experience and sever identification with them to attain deathlessness.